Triage in emergency wards of the Southwest subregion of Antioquia. Descriptive observational study

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify the implementation of triage in emergency wards, after the release of Resolution 5596 of 2015 of the Ministry of Health of Colombia, in the hospitals of the outhwest subregion of the department of Antioquia. Methodology: Descriptive, cross-sectional study. The 23 public hospitals in the municipalities of the southwestern subregion of Antioquia were in-cluded. A convenience non-probabilistic sampling was used. The data were obtained through a survey and structured interview technique. Findings: The survey was answered by hospital officials from the 23 municipalities of southwest Antioquia. Only 3 institutions (13%) have an adequate implementation of the triage service (adherence to the resolution greater than 80%), 74% reported adherence to the resolution > 20% and ≤ 80% and 3 institutions do not achieved a percentage of adherence greater than 20% to the resolution. Only 3 institutions (13%) use validated triage, in 3 other institutions (13%) they do not know what type of triage they use and in most institutions (74%) they use a non-validated triage. Conclusions: in spite of being a mandatory regulation for the hospitals of the national territory, only 13% of the hospitals included in the study com-ply with the technical criteria of triage policy of the Colombian Ministry of Health.